[Diagnostic and etiopathogenic aspects of autism]

The Pervasive Developmental Disorders are a very complex and discussed subject both from a clinical point of view and about the etiopathogenesis. Different opinions have generated, in the past, different classification systems based on the underlying theoretical hypothesis. Nowadays the most popular classification systems are the ones contained in the DSM-IV and in the ICD-10. They define these diseases as "conditions characterized by a distortion of base development regarding verbal and non-verbal communication, the reciprocal and social ability of interaction and the imaginative activity." Inside this scenery are also compromised the motion activity, the awareness, the sensorial perception, the humour and the knowledge ability. About the pathogeny, nowadays many authors think autism is based on particular biological conditions, nevertheless they are not well-known or general. The exact origins of the rise of autistic disease are, in fact, still hypothetical. In the same way the concatenation of pathological events determining the arise of such a complex and wide clinical condition is also hypothetical. The discussion is mainly about the classification of childhood autism as a pure organic pathology or as a final expression of organic, psychic, familiar and social factors correlating with wrong operating structures, differentiated from an anatomic and functional point of view. So it seems quite plausible to take into account the possibility of a multisystemic compromise likely generated by a multifactor condition.